Tampa silent disco provides opportunity to dance and connect

Video story produced and reported by Rolynn Wilson. Web editing by Abigail Ramshaw.

A new form of dance therapy is now available for the Tampa Bay community to try.

Music is the heart of any event, but what sets this one apart from the rest is where that sound is coming from. Silent Vibes is a new spin on silent disco, an event popularized in the late 1960s where people dance to music listened to on wireless headphones. Now headphone parties are taking on a much larger role.

“I found this actually in LA, this mindful silent disco, because I was living out there,” said Silent Vibes founder Alicia Waldner. “I was living bi-coastal, and given COVID, given the times of what happened, people are trapped in their own emotions right now. They are in the place of feeling lost. They might have lost people in their life, they might have lost a lot financially or whatever it is their hardships they went through. More than ever people need to just let go, people need to be present.”

With the help of yoga instructors and group icebreakers, mindfulness and movement go hand in hand throughout this class. Waldner described the impact of silent discos on unity and connectivity, claiming the parties helped not only her but also the people around her who struggled to express themselves.

“Our generation is so open-minded and willing to get weird,” Waldner said. “Like getting weird years ago I mean it hasn’t happened since like disco was really a thing and then everybody had to be conservative for a while and I feel there’s more free-spirited people coming around, more people that just want to truly authentically be themselves. So I think that’s why I just think that this generation is very open and nonjudgmental, becoming more and more nonjudgmental.”

Waldner expressed her desire to expand her business.

“My goal is just to dominate within Tampa and get these events bigger and bigger like we have now but I’d love to see it across the U.S.” Waldner said. “We do have an event in New York coming up tomorrow. We’re actually leaving for New York City so we’re starting to create that impact. We’re getting into kind of a hospital realm as well so there’s like a lot that we’re moving to I just want to see it just keep growing and the impact. I just want people to talk about it.”

Now you can truly dance like nobody is watching.

Check out Silent Vibes and see how you can get involved here.